Bio-X Bioengineering Graduate Fellowships 2004

Amanda Malone
(Professor C. Jacobs)

It is well documented that bone responds to changes in load with corresponding changes in size and density. My lab believes that Oscillatory Fluid Flow (OFF), generated by pressure gradients in the lacunar cannicular network, is a potent physiological signal that is recognized by bone cells as an anabolic stimulus. While it is known that bone cells respond to fluid flow with various intracellular chemical responses, the actual mechanism that transduces the physical extracellular signal to a chemical intracellular one is not yet known. I am hoping to determine the actual molecules that take part in this conversion from a mechanical signal to a chemical one. My hypothesis is that this mechanotransduction event could be linked to integrins and the phosphorylation of Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK). FAK is a good candidate for a mechanotrasduction molecule in bone cells because it has both structural and enzymatic function and has proved relevant in mechanotransduction in other cell types.